Robert Hawkins

I’m not hearing anything that actually tips off the manager or the administrator of this type of private information that a particular person is spending hours, maybe even days examining individual and private files. I haven’t heard a single word built around that fact that there’s something that informs the administrator that something wrong is going on.

Would the Minister be able to speak to that issue specifically, to find out does anything address that type of problem? I’ve been informed they’re a problem, but I’m more worried about the broader protocols at this second to that issue.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Perhaps my calendar is different than the Minister’s, although he’s laughing and I think he did it as a joke and I’ll accept it in the way it was delivered with some humour. But let’s just be clear. Let’s work off the February 21st date, if that’s agreeable.

Again, I’m looking for an action plan on direction. I’m not looking for a 20-page report, I’m just looking for a couple pages that say this is how we’re strategizing and we will work toward achievables. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, a commitment was made in the House about developing a communications plan to get out there, we want to promote phone numbers and access points. In my view, the consumer affairs division may not need a singular street window type of office where people can walk up to, but the fact is, it needs to be publicized in a way that people know where to bring their concerns.

Does the Minister see this as important, or should it be nestled away in some area of government that it’s kept anonymous, as it seems to be? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise again today to continue to raise the issue that Northerners want to apply on these mystery jobs. In some ways I view it more as they’re being denied the right to apply on jobs by their own government.

This is something that you would hear of in a Third World country, something maybe in a dictatorship or who knows what; I can’t describe it. But these are circumstances where people are telling me how they feel and certainly I say that I agree that how they feel is right.

In the crux of the problem we keep digging deeper, or as I said the other day, the further you...

Mr. Speaker, it begs the question why do we even approve any budget if we know this? There are 571 vacancies the government is actively pursuing, but we can only find 100 on-line. We know, at the end of the day, no matter what we approved as the budget, the deputy ministers can go do an end run and move the money over to projects they want. So the reality is when the Legislature makes the decision, it just seems to be a waste of anyone’s time, including Cabinet and certainly the public. With jobs being denied to Northerners, this just doesn’t sit well.

Explain why we’re here if the deputy...

I’d like to ask what the Finance Minister is going to do if we know that deputy ministers are signing off human resources money that is designed, protected and passed in this Legislature by a duly elected body when they go behind the scenes and re-appropriate the money for their pet projects. What is the Finance Minister going to do?

Northern job opportunities continue to be denied to the everyday Northerner. Hardworking Northerners want these opportunities, so again I’m saying this not because I am frustrated but I can tell you that they’re frustrated. They’re frustrated because they hear about this job fair in Ottawa, but they are saying to me, why didn’t they do the whistle stops all throughout the Northwest Territories first? Does it mean we can’t go to Ottawa to look for special skills, certain types of hard areas to hire? Absolutely not. It doesn’t mean that. We should show Northerners we care about them first. What...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance.

Please list all examples for the last 10 years in the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs, Public Works and Services, and Transportation where approved human resources dollars, typically listed under the main estimates category “Compensation and Benefits,” appropriated by the Legislature of the day, where money or monies have been transferred from the intended human resources activity to an operations project, program, service or any other activity for which these funds were not originally approved nor intended.

Fur...

The department agencies can manage their vacancies and variances by meeting their goals, delivering their programs and services while staying within their budgets. So, what that’s saying is departments can manage their money by turning around and moving human resource money over to program money. I can tell you, the Finance Minister has witnessed a claim made by senior management where they’ve chosen to use HR money for program needs.

What is the Finance Minister going to do, after I’ve just heard his last response from the last question when he sat and heard the proof, because he was there...

Mr. Speaker, this Legislature approves money to be directed specifically to human resources. In other words, we dedicate money specifically for jobs. The Northwest Territories as of December 31st, had an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. We’ve heard that deputy ministers will move money that is intended for human resources over to projects because they want to fulfil their mandate within their department. My view is they are actually breaking direction laid out by the Legislature. In essence, it’s tantamount, in my view, of breaking the law.

My question to the Minister of Finance is: Will he...